understanding of the poem, and the reciting should be with better effect. The work of memorizing will be slow, a part of from four to eight class periods being required to teach a poem of eight stanzas. Not more than four or five poems, one psalm, and twelve gems should be taught during the year. Poems and gems learned the preceding year may be repeated profitably from time to time. In reading, it may be found helpful to have the children occasionally read the poems they have already memorized or are memorizing at the time.

See Appendix B for suitable material in both poems and gems. The following list gives the teacher a wider range of choice:

WIGGIN, KATE D.: Green Things Growing; An Apple Orchard in the Spring.

SHERMAN, F. D.: The Four Winds; September; Kriss Kringle.

RILEY, J. W.: A Song; Little Brook.

LONGFELLOW, H. W.: Hiawatha's Childhood; The April

Shower.

STEVENSON, R. L.: Winter Time; The Wind; My Bed is a Boat. TENNYSON, ALFRED: Sweet and Low; The Snowdrop. WHITTIER, J. G.: The Corn Song; The Barefoot Boy. KINGSLEY, CHARLES.: The Lost Doll.

ROSSETTI, CHRISTINA: Who has seen the Wind?

BROWNING, ROBERT: Pippa's Song.

WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM: To a Butterfly.

STEDMAN, E. C.: What the Winds Bring.
ALLINGHAM, WILLIAM: Robin Redbreast.
FIELD, EUGENE: Japanese Lullaby.
CARY, ALICE: Autumn.

BIBLE: Psalms i and xxiii.

2. Dramatization. Stories or dramatic poems longer than those played in the second grade may now be used. The average length should be about twenty bits of dialogue. More liberty in adding characters and in changing the direct discourse should be allowed and expected, while dialogue parts may be added for characters that appear in the story only in the third person. Not more than three or four

finished plays should be attempted during the year. Reading lessons in which much dialogue appears may be effectively recited in semidramatic form. Certain children will assume certain rôles and will read, with some little attempt at action, the dialogue assigned to the corresponding characters. Dramatic readers, names of which appear in Appendix A, may be used for the dramatic work of this type. The history work of the year may culminate in a play. If this

has been on Norway, let the Norse heroes be the characters, and let their characteristic customs and habits suggest the action. Or, if Kentucky has been the subject of study, let the pioneer life furnish characters and a plot.

Another type of dramatic work, less studied and more spontaneous than that outlined above, may

ALL THE CHARACTERS IN "SLEEPING BEAUTY" ASSEMBLED
FOR PICTURE

often be used with profit in this grade. This is sometimes called spontaneous dramatics. A story with which the children are thoroughly familiar is chosen. It may have been part of the reading work of a previous year or it may be altogether new to the children. With only a very little preparation as to characters and staging, and with none as to the language to be

used, the class is asked to play the story. The story should be short, and the incidents few and welldefined. A few pertinent questions may be asked by the teacher if the class is not at its best, but as a rule very little discussion should precede the play. New actors may be chosen for a second rendering, but usually only one performance of a story is given.

Most of the stories learned in the story-telling work should be dramatized. The following stories, mostly from sop, are suggested as suitable for use in this grade:

The Shepherd Boy.

The Cat and the Fox.

The Bear and the Tomtits.

The Hare and the Tortoise.

The Fox and the Crow.

The Echo.

The Monkey and the Chestnuts.

The Wolf and the Crane.

The Lark and the Farmer.

The Town Mouse and the City Mouse.

Orpheus and Eurydice.

Aurora and Tithonus.

The Lark and the Rook.

Baucis and Philemon.

Apollo and Hercules.

3. Language Games. The work of correcting common errors in the speech of the children by simple little games should be continued to some extent in this grade. The method of conducting the work has been outlined in the first two grades. The teacher should keep for this purpose a list of common errors

made in class, on the playground, and elsewhere. Many suitable games may be found in the two books mentioned under this heading in the first grade.

II. WRITTEN LANGUAGE WORK

ORIGINAL EXPRESSION

Subjects assigned for written work should always be discussed with the children before they are asked to begin writing. This is done to put them in possession of the ideas and words needed. After the oral discussion, words that the children cannot spell should be written on the board. The papers should be read over and corrected so far as possible before they are handed in; or, if the work is done at the board, as it should be much of the time during the early part of the year, each child should correct his work before the other children are asked to help him. At first the papers may be corrected by the class, each child correcting another's paper. Later the teacher should correct all papers and discuss typical mistakes with the class. The corrections should always cover all matters of capitalization, punctuation, etc. outlined for this and preceding grades. Notice should also be taken of misspelled words, badly chosen words, and mistakes in syntax. Children should also be led to see points of excellence. The following are a few such points: 1. Well-chosen words.

2. New words used for the first time and spelled correctly.